Juan Montoliu Hernandez

Crisis Architecture – Colonizing Existing Concrete Structures

Castellon, Spain

Spain’s housing crisis has dramatically struck the country not just in economic terms, but also socially and environmentally. On the on hand, extremely high unemployment rate has led to hundreds of thousands of families being evicted and finding themselves unable to repay unaffordable mortgages. On the other, the country is steadily becoming a nation of ‘ghost towns’ filled with unfinished buildings and entirely empty housing estates that are left abandoned creating a housing surplus that is approaching one million dwellings. This proposal aims to provide an urgent and affordable housing alternative for crisis- affected people by colonizing unfinished buildings in a temporary manner, while at the same time reactivating the deserted new developments protecting them from informal occupancy.